What's the best thing for me to eat?

Lots of people ask me what they should be eating. And oh! how I love to answer that question, even when there's a much better question to ask.

(In fact, you can count on me to answer this question in the future, lots more times. I'll do it by the end of this newsletter.)

Anyway, here’s what I know: We can tinker forever trying to put together a “perfect” way of eating, salting our diet liberally with discouraging post-failure bingey eating

OR

we can just resign ourselves to reality, which is that there is no perfectdiet, and we’re always going to be experimenting to some degree, which means that there will always be failures.

And is that SO WRAWWNG? as Harvey Fierstein might ask. Answer: No!

If we can stop aiming for A+, and start aiming for B-, which we can probably hit most of the time, we will see progress. We will stop taking two steps back for every two steps forward.

Over here I am having a D++ week. I just got back from a week on the road to a family emergency. But I don’t want to EAT at a D+ level, so it’s going to be a week of minimum-standard meals for minimum effort. Because consistency is more important than anything else for a person trying to break the grip of a nasty habit. Habits like OH ARE THINGS HARD? HERE HAVE THIS WHOLE THREE-LAYER CAKE. That one's always waiting for me to have a bad week.

I suggest you too put together a repertoire of acceptable meals for pear-shaped weeks. 5 ingredients, 5 minutes active work, all the macronutrients. That's all you need, at bottom. We’ll talk more about these soon, but for today here’s my favorite, from the late poet Ronald Johnson. He calls it “Thing.”

THING (makes one serving)

from Ronald Johnson, The American Table

1 potato, cubed fineoil for frying (for me that’s olive, The End, and I like a lot)1 scoop of 4% cottage cheese2-3 green onions, sliced fine on the diagonalsalt and pepper

Heat the oil in a heavy pan over med-high flame.

Add the potatoes in a single layer and season.

Leave them for 5-8 minutes, or until the potatoes are golden on the bottom, and then flip over with a spatula. They should be stuck together, making turning them easy.

Turn the heat down to medium, season again and cook another 5 or so minutes, until the potatoes are as done on the bottom as you like them.

Lift the potato thing onto your plate, top the hot potatoes with cold cottage cheese, and sprinkle the green onions on top. Turns out salt’s not bad for you, so if you want, put some more on.

You will like this dish!

Okay, I'm going to put together some more B+ recipes. They will be nourishing but not strenuously so. Easy, quick, short list of ingredients. If you want to contribute, hit me with your favorites, and I’ll put them together for all of us.

PS I’m back from vacation and filling my calendar. Want coaching? See all the details here, and if it sounds like what you're looking for, use the contact form to let me know. We'll make a date to have a phone chat and make sure we're a good fit for each other.

Really, it is so much quicker and easier than we're told.

PPS Looking forward to the next Body of Knowledge class? It’s coming in September. DETAILS NEXT WEEK.